Heather Cox Richardson
Liberal historian, pro-democracy newsletter commentary· 1.4M followers · tracked by RisingPolitics
37.0Credibility Score (0–100) · ranked #115 of the creators we track
Heather Cox Richardson ranks #115 by credibility versus #101 by raw follower count — their raw follower total sits ahead of where their audience quality places them.
Audience authenticity is still warming up — we’re accumulating samples, so this score may shift.
How the Credibility Score is calculated →
Heather Cox Richardson is an American historian and professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. In 2019 she started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history, with a focus on the health of American democracy. As of July 2025, the newsletter had over 2.6 million subscribers, making it one of the most popular Substack publications.
Common questions
Is Heather Cox Richardson left or right?
Richardson is a Boston College history professor whose nightly Substack newsletter, Letters from an American, explains the day's politics through American history and has grown to over 2.9 million subscribers since she began it in 2019. Her framing is that of the liberal, pro-democracy mainstream: she writes sympathetically toward the Democratic coalition and critically of the Trump administration, with recent 2026 letters carrying titles like "Rigging the 2026 Election" and "Who Is in Control?" that treat current Republican governance as a threat to democratic institutions. She is not a partisan operative or activist — her authority comes from her academic standing as a scholar of the Civil War and Reconstruction — but her audience and outlook place her clearly on the center-left. As of July 2026 the newsletter remains active daily, alongside a companion podcast.
How credible is Heather Cox Richardson's audience?
Heather Cox Richardson scores 37.0 out of 100 on the RisingPolitics Credibility Score, ranking #115 among the political creators we track. The score starts with audience size, subtracts accounts that look fake, and weighs how strongly the audience actually engages.
How many followers does Heather Cox Richardson have?
Heather Cox Richardson has about 1.4M followers combined across YouTube and X.
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